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Trends & Issues for Fire Protection in Transportation Occupancies
Recent innovations in transportation-re- lated fire alarm & emergency notification technology offer tremendous advances in potential fire emergencies and traveler notification. Transportation occupancies, especially those used by the public such as airports, train stations & subways, present unique challenges:
» Large numbers of potentially confused or panicked occupants in crowded spaces
» Transient occupants; the crowd is always in motion
» Travelers focused on the areas of interest such as their boarding gate
» Those unfamiliar with their overall surroundings
» Language barriers
» A mix of occupancies such as restaurants & shops
» Behind-the- scenes spaces such as mechanical & baggage
Emergency Communications Are Critical
The need to transmit emergency in- formation rather than generic sig- nals is now widely recognized. Emer- gency Voice Evacuation Systems and other Mass Notification Systems (MNS) are becoming widespread to manage complex evacuation instruc- tions and provide egress for large crowds in situations such as:
» Terroristic threats - transportation hubs are attractive targets
» Severe weather such as tornados
» Accidental & intentional release of hazardous materials
Emergency notification systems should be redundant; no single means of communication should be relied upon to reach everyone affected. Additional planning and engineering can employ new fire protection capabilities ideal for underground passages commonly found in terminals. In the past 10 years, new fire protec- tion design tools have been devel- oped to address more effectively the evacuation of occupants, smoke and ventilation management and emer- gency lighting.
